Strand cutting apparatus



p ,2, 1969 E. L. FLETCHER 3,464,300

STRAND CUTTING APPARATUS Filed Feb. 7, 1967 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 P 2, 1969 5. L. FLETCHER. 3,464,300

STRAND CUTTING APPARATUS Filed Feb. '7, 1967 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 p 1969 E. L. FLETCHER STRAND CUTTING APPARATUS 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed Feb. 7, 1967 United States Patent 3,464,300 STRAND CUTTING APIARATUS Eldon L. Fletcher, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, assignor, by mesne assignments, to E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Wilmington, Del., a corporation of Delaware Filed Feb. 7, 1967, Ser. No. 614,434 Int. Cl. B26d 7/06, 08

U.S. Cl. 83100 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A strand is cut and/or diverted from its normal path of advance to a vacuum line by a swingable door on a housing. The door and housing have cooperable Cutting elements. Door release and valving of the vacuum line are coordinated by a control mechanism with both manual and defect sensitive inputs.

This invention relates generally to the handling of a strand or plurality of strands when being processed from a continually operating spinning source and more particularly, to an auxiliary apparatus for handling at least one strand continually advancing from a spinneret.

The term strand includes all types of continuous synthetically repared filamentary material such as yarn, cord, thread, tow and monofilament.

In synthetic fiber manufacturing, the strands are often extruded vertically downwards from a spinneret. The strands then pass through a cooling duct or quenching zone where they solidify and continue to the windup mechanism. Here, other process steps may be added such as drawing, and the strands are finally wound onto some suitably shaped package. In practice, the spinneret location is on one floor of the building in which the process is carried out, and the windup mechanism is on the floor below in a position more or less directly beneath the spinneret.

As there are many units involved in the continuous processing of textile filaments, at least two operators are required. The first operator sees that the strands are being extruded properly from the spinnerets. He also sees that the strands pass downwardly through the cooling ,duct and interfioor tube. The operator on the floor below oversees the windup mechanisms and removes the full packages replacing them with empty carriers. The conventional method for starting up the spinning process is for the first operator to throw down the continuously advancing strands through the interfioor tube where they are caught on the lower floor by the second operator. The fact that both operators must pool their efforts to start up any one given unit leads to shutdown periods of considerable duration.

In addition to the problems encountered in stringing up each unit, it is well known in the textile industry that the process of continuously extruding strands from a spinneret is normally not stopped when a defective condition in the form of roll wraps or breaks appear in the windup process. With present high speed spinning machines, heavy denier strands can cause damage to the equipment when a defect occurs, and the buildup of roll wraps can become a safety hazard for the operator. Rather than interrupt the spinning process, the practice is for the second operator to cut down the strand and then introduce it to a fluid aspirator or sucker gun of the type disclosed by Miller in US. Patent 2,667,964. In the text of Millers disclosure, an aspirator is defined as a tube or pipe which conveys at least one strand away to a waste collector by means of a vacuum or compressible fluid. An alternative practice has been to employ sensing devices which func- 3,464,300 Patented Sept. 2, 1969 tion to detect the various defects and to actuate cutdown .devices interrupting the downstream delivery of the strands to the windup mechanism. These cut down devices are normally located above the windup mechanism. They 'cut the continuously advancing strand which is then permitted to accumulate on the floor or is drawn into an aspirator and conveyed away to a waste collector until the second operator has had a chance to remedy the sensed defect and restore the position to a normal operating condition.

According to the present invention, a strand-processing installation is provided with a disposal apparatus which includes a housing with an open front. Normally, the strand passes the housing in its advance to some succeeding process point. There is a latched door mounted for swinging movement to a closed position over the front of the housing. A control mechanism functions to unlatch the door and open a vacuum line which extends into the housing for picking up a strand advancing thereto.

In the drawings,

FIGURE 1 is a schematic illustration of a filamentary strand advancing through an interfioor tube to the apparatus of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing details of the latching mechanism and a strand-cutting device;

FIG. 3 is an elevational cross section showing details of a gate valve in the vacuum line;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the gate valve with associated parts of the control mechanism;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a semi-automatic device for cutting a strand advancing to the vacuum line;

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary side view of a modified apparatus; and

FIG. 7 is a sectional view through a valve which interrupts the vacuum line shown in FIG. 6.

As shown in FIG. 1, the strand-processing installation has an interfioor tube 10 through which freshly extruded filaments 11 advance downwardly from a spinneret and quenching zone to the next process stage, e.g., a draw zone or windup. Beneath tube 10, adjacent the normal path of travel for filaments 11, housing 12 of disposal apparatus 13 is fixedly mounted. Housing 12 has an open front which can be closed with a swingable door 14.

Referring to FIG. 2, door 14 has a glass panel fitted in a steel frame pivoted on two hinge arms 16. Along its bottom edge, the steel frame has a pair of angularly disposed guide plates 18 on either side of a metal striker plate 20 adapted for engagement with a stationary knife element 22 on housing 12. One of the hinge arms 16 has a slot 24 which receives one end of a latching rod or trigger 26. The latch consists of a steel rod running in two nonferrous metal guides 28. A compression spring 30 is attached to latch 26 and pushes against the lower rod guide, thus biasing the latch toward slot 24. At its lower end, latching rod 26 is attached to a rectangular steel frame 32 slidably mounted between spaced frame guides 34.

Within housing 12, there is a slide gate 36 (FIG. 3) which valves a vacuum line 38. A solenoid 42 in the control mechanism for latch 26 and gate valve 36 opens the latter against the bias of compression spring 44. When solenoid 42 is de-energized, gate valve 36 moves in the direction shown in FIG. 4, shutting off the vacuum line 38. Simultaneously, a cam shaft 46 attached to gate 36 engages a release pin 48. The release pin pivots on shaft 50 and, when the cam shaft has reached the end of its stroke, returns to a back stop shaft 52, being biased toward that position by a spring 54.

In FIG. 5, a semi-automatic cutting device 56 is shown in conjunction with the slotted end of vacuum line 38.

Location of this cutting device in housing 12 has been shown schematically in FIG. 1. Details of the manner in which cutting device 56 is activated by insertion of a sucker gun into aperture 58 and by sliding movement of guide block 59 have been disclosed by Sahlin in US. Patent 3,154,992. Such sliding movement cuts a strand then advancing into the slotted end of vacuum line 38 and presents it to the sucker gun. Additionally, a microswitch in the control mechanism is reset by movement of an actuator bar 60 which is coupled with block 59 and extends laterally through a slot 61 in cutting device 56. Location of the micro-switch is shown at 62 in FIG. 2.

Before startup of the extrusion process, the lower floor operator trips switch 62 and thereby energizes solenoid 42. Slide gate 36 travels in the direction indicated in FIG. 3, compresses spring 44 and opens vacuum line 38. Cam shaft 46 moves with gate 36. During this movement, the conical surface of the shaft engages release pin 48. This pin cannot pivot beyond stop shaft 52 and accordingly is forced to move away from the cam shaft 46. Since release pin 48 is coupled to trigger frame 32 by shaft 50, this relative movement of parts in the control mechanism releases latch 26 from slot 24, allowing door 14 to pivot and close under its own weight. As the cam shaft 46 moves beyond release pin 48, trigger 26 is returned to a ready position of engagement with the door hinge by compression spring 30.

At startup, the upper floor operator throws the extruded strand from the spinneret down the interfioor tube 10, where it is drawn into the vacuum line 38 and conveyed away to a waste collector. When the lower floor operator is ready to stringup the strand, he first raises the door 14 until trigger 26 engages in the trigger slot 24. He then pushes a sucker gun into the aperture 58 of strand-cutting device 56, thus moving block 59 and activating the mechanism which cuts the strand and permits the filaments to be collected by the sucker gun. Simultaneously, bar 61 resets microswitch 62 and thereby deenergizes solenoid 42. Compression spring 44 closes slide gate 36 and cuts off the vacuum line 38. Cam shaft 46 moves with slide gate 36 and pushes the release pin 48 which pivots on the shaft 50. When the large diameter of the cam shaft 46 has reached the end of its travel, spring 54 returns release pin 48 to stop shaft 52.

At stringup, the strand is passed over a contactor in sensing device 40. Upon occurrence of a defect, e.g., broken filaments, the sensing device trips microswitch 62 and solenoid 42 is energized. Valve 36 opens and door 14 is unlatched. As door 14 swings downwardly, plates 18 guide the filaments to the location of striker plate 20. Since the door is closing under its own weight, all the filaments are cut with a chopping action as the striker plate hits against stationary knife element 22. The continuously advancing filaments are then picked up by vacuum line 38 and conveyed away, leaving the first floor operator in a position to complete the stringup operation at his convenience.

In the embodiment of FIGS. 6, 7, vacuum line 38 is interrupted by a plug valve 36 having its shaft 66 keyed to a swing arm 68. Arm 68 is rotated by a link 70 which is keyed to a rotatable stub shaft 72 and is also connected to solenoid 42. The latter is pulled in from the position shown in FIG. 6 to open valve 36' (FIG. 7) either by pushing the button shown on microswitch 62' or by the sensing device 40 (FIG. 1). Switch 62 is also connected to and functions to energize a second solenoid 74 which is linked to a door latch 26 having a roller 76. When door 14' is latched in the open position, roller 76 is in a slot 24 on a plate 78 fastened to one of the hinge arms 16'. Except in these respects, disposal apparent 13 operates similarly to that shown in FIGS. 1-5.

To reduce maintenance on solenoids 42, 74, they can be de-energized after a few seconds by provision of a time delay relay in the circuit to switch 62' and sensing device 40. In this event, a longer stub shaft 72 carries a second keyed link in substantial parallelism with link 70. The second link is pivotally connected to a push rod which extends toward the front of housing 12' and facilitates manual closure of valve 36. Other changes and modifications of a similar nature will occur to those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of my invention, which is accordingly intended to be limited only by the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

1. In a strand-processing installation, a disposal apparatus comprising: a housing with an open side located adjacent the normal path of advance for a strand; a door mounted for swinging movement to a position where it covers said open side; a releasable latch in engagement with the door for holding it open; a control mechanism coupled with the latch for release of said door; a strandcutting device with cooperable parts on the door and housing; and a vacuum line extending into said housing for picking up a cut strand.

2. The installation of claim 1 wherein is provided a normally closed valve in said vacuum line and wherein the control mechanism is also coupled to said valve for opening the latter as the door is released.

3. The installation of claim 2 wherein said parts include a knife and a striker.

4. The installation of claim 1 wherein said parts include a knife and striker.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,149,515 9/1964 Edwards 8337l X 3,285,114 11/1966 Johnson 83-402 ANDREW R. JUHASZ, Primary Examiner JAMES F. COAN, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 83402, 610, 913 

